Category Archives: Dreamwave

SS&ND Reviews: This is All Yours – Alt-J

November 4, 2014 by snapshotsandneedledrops

They say a band’s sophomore album is the hardest. In this age of music, if your first release flops– that’s it. In Greg Kot’s book Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music— my all time favourite book about music– he references Joni Mitchell’s remarks on how, when she was signed, record companies offered multi-album deals. Joni’s first contract gave her something like eight albums. Mitchell claims this allowed her to grow naturally as an artist, hone her writing and musicality. […]

Categories: Album Review, Alternative, art rock, British, Dreamwave, Electronic, Experimental, folktronica, Indie, indietronica, New Wave, Rock, Sample, synth rock • Tags: album review, Alt-J, art rock, Indie Rock, music, photography, Rock, This is All Yours

Night of Triffids

October 14, 2014 by snapshotsandneedledrops

Nightfest, Floriade, Canberra, ACT Has anyone read The Night Circus? Author Erin Morgenstern depicts a magical world, hidden in plain view of Victorian England. Her writing illustrates a traveling, black-tented circus that only opens at night. Using magic (unbeknownst to the naïve and stunned 19th century English), the Night Circus travels around, creating a phantasmagorical oasis from whatever frosted barley fields it pops up from. This was what Nightfest was like; a temporary mix of flora and illumination coming together to […]

Categories: Alternative, art rock, Dreamwave, Indie, Pop • Tags: ACT, Australia, Canberra, dreamwave, Erin Morgenstern, festival, Floriade, indie pop, music, Night Fest, night photography, photography, The Night Circus

Ria Sia

June 16, 2014 by snapshotsandneedledrops

Toronto Pearson International Airport, dawn, New Years Day 2013 Sia’s smash-hit “Chandelier” and its incredible music video have infected the internet with a healthy dose of power vocals, phenomenal dancing and mainstream-busting unconventionality. If you happen to be one of the 12 people who have not seen the video yet, I’ll link it through after today’s track(s). All this talk of Sia, however, reminds me of a remixed version of her 2004 “Breathe Me” that I became obsessed with in […]

Categories: Alternative, Australian, Ballad, DJ, Dreamwave, Electronic, Experimental, Indie, indietronica, Pop, Remix, singer-songwriter, Soul • Tags: Australian, Chandelier, dreamwave, indie, music, photography, pop, remix, Sia, travel, travel photography

Lost Giraffe

April 21, 2014 by snapshotsandneedledrops

Merida, Yucatàn, Mexico— The Yucatàn Peninsula is stupidly photogenic. First off, I want to give a quick shout-out to the lovely Alexiane P., a former McGill touree of mine and an absolutely stunning vocalist. She has been selected as a finalist to sing at this year’s FrancoFolies (click for SSND post). For those of you who don’t know, Les FrancoFolies is a French music festival, possibly the largest, where francophone artists from all over the world descend on our spectacular […]

Categories: Dance, DJ, Dreamwave, Electronic, House • Tags: Chris Malinchak, DJ, electronic, flowers, FrancoFolies, house, Mexico, music, petals, photography, pink, travel, Yucatàn Peninsula

Treasure Hunting

March 17, 2014 by snapshotsandneedledrops

The Remarkable Rocks, Kangaroo Island, South Australia A few weeks ago, I wrote briefly about a trip my friend Matt and I took to Kangaroo Island. Matt and I make the perfect travel companions. We’re relaxed, adventurous, spontaneous, and we like climb all over shit. One big hangup we had about visiting Kangaroo Island is that most people do it in a day or two. A DAY OR TWO??! We had a full week there and felt like we had […]

Categories: Alternative, Dance, Dreamwave, Electronic, Experimental, House, Indie, Instrumental, New Wave, Unreleased, Unsigned • Tags: adventure, Australia, dance, dreamwave, electric, experiemental, indie, Kangaroo Island, music, photography, Remarkable Rocks, South Australia, travel, unsigned

Osheaga Playlist 2014

March 11, 2014 by snapshotsandneedledrops

Three fans mourn the end of Metric’s set while The Black Keys rock out 50ft to their left. As Canadians outside Montreal are becoming increasingly aware, for the August long-weekend there is nowhere else to be but Parc Jean-Drapeau. Starting the year before I moved to Montreal in 2006, the Osheaga Festival Musique et Arts has really exploded in the last few years, reaching 135,000 attendees in 2013 (apparently 70% from outside Québec)- practically busting out into the Saint Lawrence […]

Categories: Alternative, Australian, British, Canadian, Dance, Dreamwave, Electronic, Electropop, Experimental, Folk, House, Indie, Kiwi, Lists, Playlists, Pop, Rock, singer-songwriter, Soul, Swedish, Synthpop, World • Tags: 2014, Canadian, Concerts, convert, dance, festicals, festival, Montreal, music, Osheaga, Osheaga 2014, Osheaga 2014 playlist, Osheaga Festival Musique et Arts, osheaga music festival, Parc Jean-Drapeau, photography, Rock, world

Top Drops 2013

January 7, 2014 by snapshotsandneedledrops

As promised in last week’s Top Shots 2013, I have painstakingly culled my precious music selections from the past year and whittled down a top ten list for 2013’s Needle Drops. It was no simple task. I hummed and hawed, listened and relistened, made lists and reversed them and eventually came up with the following. Am I obsessive? Probably. Did I put too much time into this? Most likely. Am I happy with the results? Yes… I think so… Yeah…………. […]

Categories: 80s, Acoustic, Alternative, art rock, Australian, British, Canadian, Cover, Dance, Dreamwave, Electronic, Electropop, Experimental, Folk, Indie, Kiwi, Lists, Playlists, Pop, Rock, singer-songwriter, Soul, Synthpop • Tags: alternative, Australian, best of, Canadian, indie, Kiwi, music, music lovers, photography, top ten

Slow Blow

December 4, 2013 by snapshotsandneedledrops

Sydney reflections Sorry guys and gals, Snapshots and Needle Drops has been taking a brief and unintentional hiatus. Fortunately, I’ve been taking loads of Snapshots-worthy pics and Emily is on deck waiting to publish another stellar post next week. The photo above was taken the night I ran Sydney’s City2Surf. To read about my amazing time in that that epic race, click here. Wolf Alice is a relatively new north-London band who released their debut EP this past October. This song […]

Categories: Alternative, art rock, British, Dreamwave, Experimental, Indie, Post-Punk, Unreleased • Tags: album release, alternative, art rock, British, dreamwave, experimental, indie, music, photography, Sydney, travel

Boom, she clack-clack

October 29, 2013 by snapshotsandneedledrops

Waiting for my connection, just my water and I, at Heathrow At the moment, I live with two kids on a South Australian farm. There are many advantages to this rural life: running with the farm dogs past fields of crops, relaxed hours, daily fresh eggs, playing hide and seek in the canola flowers, picturesque sunsets. But for all its advantages, living on a farm does not easily loan itself to tracking down new music. The kids have literally been […]

Categories: Alternative, art rock, Dreamwave, Indie, Jazz, Nu Jazz, Pop, Rock, World • Tags: alternative, art rock, farm, indie, jazz, Malaysian, music, photography, pop, Rock, Zee Avi

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